I walked out the back door of our house to be greeted in a way I haven’t been for a while. The shade of the now twenty-five year old maple seemed to wipe all thoughts away. I took a seat next to one of the bushes that lines the area under our deck, and let the silence be. What I saw became more with everything that I felt in addition to it.

To my left was the circle, still a visible in a bit more than my mind’s eye, where the green turtle sandbox used to sit. Toad races, and castle building captivated us, (being my best friends, and adopted neighbor family) for hours in the late summer sun. Croquet, and the games we made up when we tired of the rules as the world would have them, always had to be built around the hill that led up to the tree. There were always a couple of us a little better with our aim in a way that often drove the younger ones crazy. Over there? To the right? That was where we almost died in our tents when the severe thunderstorm rolled in and neither of us was going to be the first to leave. Behind me, I could almost hear the baby birds as they filled the nest that used to be there every spring. And farther off the way, hung my mom’s laundry. Blowing, and moving, and becoming a piece of God’s love letter to me.

After a good while, I stood up again, and thought about what beauty I could find behind me, and what beauty that brought to me in this moment. The nights my dad and I spent sitting on the deck fighting mosquitoes after supper rolled through my mind. I had grown under this tree. I had grown in this half acre plot. This place, where I remember, was my life. Is my life. This place, was the workings of my father’s hands by the strength of my Father, to give me somewhere to call home. This place still is.

I reached ahead, to wrap my arms around the tree as I had done so many times to show how much I’ve grown, through the years. This time, I realized first how much it had grown. I looked up, and caught a glimpse of the sun. Even as it changes, some things remain the same. I turned around and remembered. Remembered the tears. The laughs. The nights. The days. The learning. The breaking. The everything.

And as it passed my mind that I longed to be a child again where someone would give me a home, and supply for my every need, I remembered, I always am.

And I always will be.

All I have to do is remember Home.

“Rest, Rest and I will supply, for your every need.”

…because love wins.